Defiance
by tragicanon
Summary: It's been three months since Clarke wandered into the unknown. Found crazed and on the brink of death, she is given a second chance by Nia, the queen of the Ice Nation. However, what must she do to ensure the safety of her people back at The Ark? The Ice Queen wants one thing and one thing only: the head of the grounders' commander, Lexa, and Clarke is the one sent to collect her.


_Disclaimer: I don't own The 100. The 100 is the property of The CW and the respective creators, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only._

 _Rated: M For explicit content in later chapters including language, sex and gore._

 _Pairing: Clarke and Lexa._

* * *

 **DEFIANCE - PROLOGUE**

Three months, 14 days and 18 hours. That's how long Clarke lasted before she realised that it was over for her. She'd lost.

The earth had turned quiet. Flowers failed to flourish; they wilted and crusted away and each morning during sunrise, a sheen of tears carpeted the forest floor in sadness. Nights were longer and the darkness had turned her body numb. She merely lived to survive - she'd hunted the scavengers of the woods and the scavengers hunted her. Lurking beasts watched her from afar as she struggled a little more each day. They would hunt and kill her when they eventually realised she was too weak to put up another fight, yet she no longer cared. Clarke had roamed into an eternal winter where everything was white and everything was lost.

She'd lost Finn when she took his life to spare him a barbarous and torturous death from the Grounders. She'd lost Abby, her doting mother who had been crippled by the idea of her daughter being in grave danger on one too many occasions. She'd lost the people of the Ark: Raven, Bellamy, Octavia, Jasper, Monty, and everyone she left behind in Camp Jaha when she made the decision to exile herself, too weak to be reminded of the things she had done in order to save them. She'd lost Lexa, the girl who stabbed the knife in Clarke's back at Mount Weather, the girl Clarke thought she could trust and the girl who's neck Clarke wanted only to break.

She'd lost it all, and after three months, 14 days and 18 hours of living to barely survive. Clarke had completely lost her mind.

She may have lost, but her fight wasn't over just yet...

* * *

His black, manic eyes locked onto her whilst a low growl escaped through his pointed teeth. The snow-white tuft on the back of his shoulders flexed and grew as he savoured her scent. Too weak to turn away and run, Clarke kept her eyes trained onto his as she cautiously retreated into a fallen trunk, her feet getting tangled up in a bed of roots. She grasped tightly onto her only source of weaponry left, a spear in which the blade had corroded into a blunt pebble. It was as good as dust. Her breath caught in her throat before desperate clouds escaped her lips and disappeared into the frost. _Finally..._ she thought to herself as the staff fell from her grip before she fell to her knees in defeat along with it. The beast was ready to make his kill and Clarke was ready to die.

She should have taken her final moments to think of those she had lost and left behind. But she didn't. She thought of nothing.

And as the snow beast stood on his hind legs, growing three times her size, he let out a blood-curling roar, signalling his thirst for her blood.

Clarke smiled.

And then there was nothing.

For how long the darkness lasted Clarke did not know. First there was the bottomless limbo that could have spanned hours, days, weeks or even months. Eventually a recurring dream dominated her mind of a memory that had long escaped her. It was before The Ark landed on earth, before her father got floated and she sent to prison. It was before she knew of any malice or judgement or evil. Her class had been called for routine vaccinations and it was her first. She never remembered experiencing feeling the prick of a needle before and as the nurse stabbed the foreign object into her arm she gasped.

" _It's alright, Clarke. You're in safe hands now."_ The nurse smiled tenderly. Her bouncy brown curls were neatly pinned back revealing a natural authenticity about her, calming Clarke instantly.

" _You're in safe hands now..."_

The memory played over and over in her mind like a never-ending movie reel. Each time, however, the picture turned a little rustier. The nurse's voice became an echoed whisper and Clarke tried to grasp onto it, not wanting to loose touch. She fought with all of her strength to stay in that dream, in that memory, but there was nothing that could be done, she was drifting away. Clarke was drifting back into her unknown consciousness.

" _You're safe here."_

Her eyelids struggled to stay closed as a crusade of light pierced through them. The people of Camp Jaha once talked about another world for the afterlife after they'd deceased. Some believed while others didn't and until that moment, neither did Clarke. Her sight finally adjusted once she eventually managed to pry her eyes open where she found a shadow figure hovering above her.

"Hello, Clarke."

Clarke opened her mouth to speak but had forgotten how to. She squinted and strained towards the figure above pleadingly until she was jostled upwards into a sitting position. She found herself having a broad sense of deja-vu, trapped between four semi-translucent walls. Sunlight shone through a window encased underneath a grand arch at the opposite end of the room and the rays warmed her feet underneath the blanket that lay on top. She couldn't remember the last time her feet felt warm.

Clarke turned her gaze to her companion. A nurse smiled down at her from the side of the bed before laying a palm upon her forehead.

"Looks like the fever has come down, that's good news!" The woman chirped and turned to write something down in her notes.

"What... where?" Clarke croaked and was surprised at the sound of her own voice. The nurse was an older woman with white hair, grey eyes and bloodless lips but she had a presence about her that seemed refreshing. She turned and offered Clarke a courteous smile.

"You can call me Aida," she announced. "You were in pretty bad shape when we found you," her smile wavered. "We even lost you for a moment there back in the wilderness. There's no place for a young one like you to be all alone out there."

Clarke's eyes fell to the needle infused to the inside of her elbow and the drip that trailed alongside her.

"Where am I?" She asked hoarsely, panic starting to rise from the pit of her stomach.

"Don't worry yourself child, you're in good ha-"

Clarke snapped towards the nurse and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down so their eyes were level and only inches apart.

"I asked you: Where. Am. I?" She growled.

For a fleeting moment the nurse seemed anxious, but after a few breaths she drew back and regained her composure.

"My name is Aida, healer and citizen of the Ice Nation," she announced formally, any sign of sympathy that was there for Clarke before now perished. "My Queen had requested to speak with you once you were well enough." She observed Clarke up and down. "I see you have your strength back." She sneered and forced Clarke's hand from her wrist before patting down her apron. "I trust you wont try to escape while I'm gone." She crooked a brow and stood upright before breezing her way through a semi-transparent glass door.

Clarke's instincts found herself unattached from the drip and instantly on her feet as she limped her way to the window, ready to take flight and plunge to her death in a matter of seconds. Yet, she paused to take in the view of the roaring waterfall in front of her. It was aggressive and yelled at the world with a angry voice, spitting water in all directions. Clarke felt the heat of the sun radiate on her face while the frosty breeze whipped through her hair. In that moment, she truly believed she could be in heaven. She closed her eyes and inhaled the earth while her fingers held onto the frame, leaning her torso out of the window slightly.

"The fall won't kill you," a voice interrupted Clarke's moment of peaceful solitude. She opened her eyes again but refused to turn around and face the intruder whom Clarke presumed to be the Queen. "The temperature of the water, however, will send you into shock."

Clarke's view dropped down into the watery mist that loomed underneath her. She wondered if it was true; she'd already survived the fall at the damn by Mount Mayweather but the water was no where near as glacial.

"Before you can even register how cold the water actually is, your body is already reacting, you'll gasp for breath uncontrollably and if your head is submerged under water, you'll drown to death."

Clarke continued to stare out into the menacing spectacle before her. The sky was as clear as day and the land nowhere in sight. Just water, ice, air and height.

"If you haven't drowned by then the hyperventilation will eventually kill you. During this time it will feel as if your skin is being stripped away. If you're lucky it'll last not even a minute. But each second that passes will seem double the sorry lifetime you've already lived."

Clarke clenched her jaw and frowned. _Sorry lifetime..._

"Your fight isn't over, Clarke."

The sound of her own name escaping the supposed Queen's lips made Clarke squirm. She didn't sound malicious, but Clarke knew well enough not to be deceived by it.

"There's no such thing as time to me anymore," Clarke eventually admitted. "I could wait my entire _sorry_ life in misery to die, or I could end it all now." She could feel the Queens authoritative presence behind her and she wanted nothing but to shove her away. "Why not just take the easy way out?" She pressed her lips so tightly together until they turned white. _Where was the heroin who had fallen somewhere along the way?_ Clarke thought to herself. _If my fight isn't over then where is it?_

The Queen remained silent behind her at the window, peering over her shoulder. She eventually wrapped her hand around Clarke's forearm and Clarke wanted to break her, she envisioned herself hanging the Queen out of the window, her hands around the Queen's neck until she turned frigid and blue. But instead Clarke turned to her and when she caught first sight of the Queen's face, her heart almost stopped, for she could have been Abby's sister. There was a maternal nature about her; face soft and green eyes tender. She looked at Clarke attentively with her head slightly cocked to one side and the likeliness to Clarke's mother left Clarke unsteady on her feet. "Please, sit." The Queen gestured, holding out a hand towards the crimson armchair beside the bed, and like a mutt playing tricks for a scrap of meat, Clarke complied.

"I trust you know of me." The Queen stated, finally confirming what Clarke already knew. She watched as the Queen sized her up, her critical glare spanning from Clarke's feet all the way up to the highest hair on her head. Clarke did the same in return, concluding that the Queen was wearing a gown that could only be described as material that had been taken from an invaluable grand crystal drape. "Call me Nia," she announced after she noticed Clarke's own observation check.

Indifferent, Clarke dropped her gaze down to her own calloused hands instead.

"I must admit that it's not every day one goes on a hunting trip to discover a helpless girl alone in the woods, about to be mauled to death by a polar bear," Nia confessed, pacing around the room with her hands folded behind her back. Clarke kept a cautious watch on her. There was a reason she was still alive and why Nia wanted her alive. Suddenly, everything fell cold and Clarke started to shiver uncontrollably.

"Usually I would have waited until it killed you already, but I felt something in the air that morning," She turned to Clarke and offered a depthless smile. "I knew something incredible was going to be given to me that day." She turned her back to Clarke and started for the door before commanding, "Aida, the tea!"

Clarke's attention switched back to the window as adrenalin coursed through her, she gripped the arms of the chair as she deliberated whether or not to make a run for it. A cold sweat gathered around her temples but it was too late, the Queen had returned with a tray of tea in her hands.

"Rosehip is good for the immune system, your skin, tissue health and-"

"Don't give me your disingenuous crap!" Clarke spat, shaking her head in disbelief. "Let's cut to the chase, I know what you've done," she snarled up at the Queen, ignoring the drink waiting patiently in her hand. "I'd rather take my own life than be your prize."

The Queen was taken aback albeit externally composed. Without words, she calmly placed the tea tray on the bedside table and knelt down to Clarke's level.

"Clarke, you wouldn't _dare_."

The silence that followed unleashed a darkness within the Queen, her eyes became glassy and Clarke felt as if she was looking into the eyes of a serpent.

"What makes you think I'd just do anything for you?" Clarke questioned, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head, their faces just inches apart. Nia smirked and straightened herself up again.

"You will," she sighed pressing her forefinger to her lips. "Because if you refuse me, I will have all of your people eradicated before you even think about hitting the bottom of that waterfall."

Clarke's mouth clenched, her eyes searched for something to use, something to show that no queen owned her and to show she wouldn't be threatened. Eventually her sights set onto the floral Chinaware holding the tea beside her. Nia had turned her back and it was the perfect opportunity. Without a moment to spare, Clarke stood to grab the nearest saucer and smashed against the mahogany wood of the bedside cabinet, producing a lethal shard.

Nia whipped around and recognised Clarke's intention. The Queen lunged forward, dodging Clarke's spar and pinned the blonde against the wall, forearm pressed against Clarke's throat and the other hand ripping the broken China from her hand.

"There you are!" Nia exclaimed, eyes wide with excitement.

"Why should I believe you?" Clarke gasped, struggling for air as Nia pressed tighter against her throat.

"You silly child!" Nia hissed. "My people have had you on watch ever since your ships came crashing down to our planet. We are everywhere!" She laughed.

"They're... just... words!" Clarke struggled, the whites in her eyes turning red. She grappled for Nia's arm but it was as good as shifting an iron slab.

"But you see, I wouldn't lie to you! I know with much physiotherapy, Raven has made a full recovery," Nia licked her lips, all too much at ease for the situation. "However, her heart _does_ still ache for Finn, even if she tried to deny it."

Clarke couldn't look at her, she couldn't allow Nia to see her ache.

"I know that Bellamy has proven to the rest of The Ark what a righteous leader he truly is. He has regained the respect of your people," she was amused and Clarke could feel the blood drain back out of her hands and feet. "Octavia is still as stubborn as ever, but she's ballsy, she makes a great warrior, and your mother?" She peered up at Clarke.

Clarke's eyes widened. She felt the blood gather in her face, her palms were sticky with sweat and her vision now consisted of blurry red dots.

"Your poor mother wakes up every day hoping that you were home; that you leaving was just a bad dream. She went looking for you a couple of times, tried to negotiate with the grounders to find your whereabouts and every day she ends up more disappointed. She hopes and prays every night that you're alright, and that one day you'll return."

Nia released her grip causing Clarke to drop to the floor like a broken string puppet. She gasped feverishly, tears stinging her eyes while she clawed at her own throat.

"You wouldn't want anything to happen to them now would you?" Nia inquired, flexing her left arm. "You've already done so much to save them. You wouldn't want that all to be for nothing..."

"My people wont go down without a fight!" Clarke panted, her voice now raspy and broken.

"See, I think you've underestimated the situation," the Queen pursed her lips and dusted the bed. "This nation has a population of 150,000 people." She turned to Clarke and smiled triumphantly as if she'd already claimed her prize. "50,000 of which are warriors and that's not including the 20,000 out on patrol this very moment."

Clarke threw her head between her knees. The Queen waited for her cry of defeat and surely it came with precision timing.

"Why?" Clarke babbled, pathetic and exhausted. "Why me?"

"You know why..." Nia jested.

Of course.

 _Lexa._

"Polis is a large city," she continued and glided over to the window, peering outwards. "Not as vast in population, but they have a strong army and they're loyal to their Commander," she gracefully trailed her fingers down the satin curtain. "As for _her,_ all you need to focus on is bringing her to me."

"She would never agree to that," Clarke shook her head in dispute. "She betrayed me, she lost my trust and she knows that. If anything, she'll know I'll want revenge."

"That is the art of time, dear." Nia sang around the room, completely unaffected by what just happened. "Allow her time to regain your trust and then use that resourceful head of yours to bring her back to _me._ "

"And what if she refuses to come with me?"

"Well, once Lexa believes that Costia is still alive, she'll be charging here bloodthirsty." Her voice fell an octave lower and Clarke watched her through sticky eyes and the realisation made her stomach drop.

"Is she?" Clarke asked, feeling nauseous.

"Of course not!" Nia scoffed. "I exterminated that cockroach when she refused to tell me Lexa's whereabouts. Take my word, Clarke, in this world love will only get you killed."

Perhaps that is why Lexa seemed at the most part impenetrable, or perhaps Clarke never knew Lexa at all. Perhaps her time with Lexa in Tondc and the surrounding camps was all an act to hide the malevolent intentions of her true kind. The Queen peered at Clarke expectantly from across the room, drawing out Clarke's inner afflictions.

She was going to find out what was underneath, even if that meant leading Lexa to her death. Clarke was going to save her people because she had no other choice.

She raised her head once again to face the Queen now towering above her. She swallowed dryly before opening her mouth to say, "I'll do it."

* * *

That night Clarke set out on horseback with four guards. The Valley was covered in a white blanket of snow than ran for miles ahead. It would be a treacherous three week journey south to the Capital where she would meet with Lexa once again. The Queen had discussed the details over a feast held in the banqueting hall of the castle. Hundreds turned up to toast the forthcoming trial and execution of a girl who had barely begun her life for reasons that were sacred. A part of Clarke hoped that their reasons were justifiable, yet another part hoped that she was wrong about Lexa. It wasn't a choice – Clarke wouldn't let her people die in order to save the grounders' Commander. So for the first time in a long time, she had to pretend to feel nothing.

"You are to arrive in Polis and reveal you were captured by the Ice Nation. Tell them you were tortured for answers you did not know but you escaped and spent weeks on a journey for refuge. Many will want to kill you immediately as you'll be a liability to them, but you will hold valuable information. Reveal that Costia is in fact alive and that she asked you to pass a message on to their Commander. Lexa will not refuse you." Nia held up the wine to her mouth, keeping her eyes trained on Clarke who sat gaunt and vacant as the Queen's words sinked in.

"And she will pay."

* * *

 _ **AN:** So I'm new to the fandom and haven't read any Clexa fics as of yet so if there is a similar concept out there, please leave a message and let me know! Also this is just the Prologue so more about the Queen and Ice Nation will be revealed! Also, chapters will genuinely be longer / have more material. This was just to get the foot in the door. Please leave a review and any constructive criticism is also welcome. Thanks!  
_


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